Michel still in the spotlight

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

6/13/07, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 8:42 PM CET

No one could accuse Louis Michel of keeping a low profile in the aftermath of the Belgian election campaign. Michel had taken a month’s leave from his job as a European commissioner to campaign for his Walloon liberal party before the elections on Sunday (10 June). He was back at work at the Commission on Monday (11 June), had a meeting on Tuesday with Robert Zoellick, candidate for the presidency of the World Bank, and put forward a proposal on humanitarian aid on Wednesday. Cynics might wonder why Michel had to appear on various televisions channels giving a political commentary on the results on Sunday evening. The reason, as Didier Reynders, Michel’s party colleague, explained during the previous week, is that there are two contests: one ahead of the elections, which happens in public and on which the voters are allowed a say; one afterwards, which goes on behind closed doors, as the parties haggle over forming a government coalition. Michel has clearly decided to participate in both.Michel’s predecessor as Belgium’s European commissioner, Philippe Busquin, won a seat in the senate, but has yet to decide whether he will take it up, or opt to stay in the European Parliament.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …